La Jetée ciné-roman back in print
Author: Simon Sellars • Jan 25th, 2008 •Category: Ballardosphere, Chris Marker, New Worlds, film, inner space, science fiction
I am delighted to report that the book of Chris Marker’s La Jetée is back in print through Zone Books — and in hardcover, too. It will be out in (US) Spring 2008. Thank you, thank you: for years, second-hand copies were changing hands via Amazon and eBay for anything up to $400.
Unable to fork over so much cash, the only copy I could find was at my local library and I would borrow and reborrow it, unable to let it go.
Congratulations, Zone Books. Chris Marker himself will be happy, too:
This book version of La Jetée is, to my mind, astonishingly beautiful. It brings a total freshness to the work and a new way to use photos to deal with dramatic events. Not a film’s book, but a book in its own right — the real ciné-roman announced in the film’s credits.
Chris Marker
It’s also pleasing to see that Zone is promoting the book with an admiring quote from Ballard, taken from his 1966 review of the film in New Worlds:
This strange and poetic film, a fusion of science fiction, psychological fable, and photomontage … creates its own conventions from scratch. It triumphantly succeeds where science fiction invariably fails.
J.G. Ballard.
SPOILER ALERT
This prompted me to dig out Ballard’s full review, where I am surprised to discover that Ballard gets the ending wrong. I’d never noticed that before. Ballard says the man throws himself off the pier, when in fact he is shot by the camp guard. His interpretation completely changes the dynamic. For Marker, the man’s execution means he is forever trapped in time, eternally haunted by his memories. In Ballard’s version, the man’s display of agency means he is still trapped, but that he has willingly altered time, with the expected tragic consequences, Definitely Ballardian, then, but maybe not what Marker intended.
Here’s an overview of La Jetée, which I wrote a few years back.
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Oh, good one. I suppose the film still has the edge but I’d like to see this.
That reminds me, there is (or was) a bar in Tokyo which takes its theme from Marker’s film. I think he mentions it in his wonderful Immemory CD-ROM (also out of print) but I can’t check that since it only runs on Mac OS 9 and my Macs aren’t running Classic any longer.
[...] friend just sent the link to the news about the reprinting of La Jetée, reminding about how amazingly beautiful this work is and what a destructuralist [...]
Of course it won’t compete with the film (or maybe it will), but as Marker says in that quote above, it’s a literalisation of the ‘cine-roman’ the film claims to be. A delightful example of double-fake-authenticity.
This is really funny - when I was in England for the second time, I found this in the basement of a bookstore and I was really able to put a 5 (!) sterling pound sticker in this book - one of the biggest scams I’ve done (apart from stealing). I wish there was another copy. This was London back in 1993 - don’t try this today, folks!… As for Ballard’s interpretation, I will post my opinion in some days’ time, due to heavy work. Good night Simon!!!
Naughty Iraklis. And I look forward to your interpretation, too.
[...] friend just sent this link to the news about the reprinting of La Jetée, reminding me about how amazingly beautiful this work is and what a destructuralist achievement it [...]